Redeeming God

Liberating you from bad ideas about God

Learn the MOST ESSENTIAL truths for following Jesus.

Get FREE articles and audio teachings in my discipleship emails!


  • Join Us!
  • Scripture
  • Theology
  • My Books
  • About
  • Discipleship
  • Courses
    • What is Hell?
    • Skeleton Church
    • The Gospel According to Scripture
    • The Gospel Dictionary
    • The Re-Justification of God
    • What is Prayer?
    • Adventures in Fishing for Men
    • What are the Spiritual Gifts?
    • How to Study the Bible
    • Courses FAQ
  • Forum
    • Introduce Yourself
    • Old Testament
    • New Testament
    • Theology Questions
    • Life & Ministry
You are here: Home / Archives

Human Trafficking Prostitution Ring Busted

By Jeremy Myers
2 Comments

Human Trafficking Prostitution Ring Busted

My wife and I are slowly trying to learn how to help girls enslaved in human trafficking as sex slaves. So occasionally, I will post updates about what we are learning. Martin Scott over at the Perspectives blog alerted me to the following news:

Sex-Slave Ring Busted in Mallorca, Canary Islands, and Madrid

Here is a quote from the article (This is a Google translation from Spanish, so forgive the oddities):

The organization captured a good-looking young Nigerian and scarce resources to those subjected to a “voodoo ritual” in their country of origin, which were committed to an oath to repay a debt of between 30,000 and 70,000 euros.

Were transferred by boat to Spain via Morocco or in plane clandestinely and with false documents, under the promise that the organization would seek a job to start a new life in Europe and not knowing that his fate was to be exercised prostitution.

Once in Spain, women living in captivity and were forced into prostitution under threats of black magic rituals, as well as by physical violence, rape and death threats to the girls themselves and their families in Nigeria. Several were forced to abort.

And remember, this isn’t just a problem in Spain or Africa. It’s happening right here in the United States. It’s going on in your town.

To learn more about Human Trafficking and sex slavery, check out some of these posts:

Human Trafficking Posts

  1. Sex Slaves
  2. Would You Fight Slavery?
  3. Rescue Russian Sex Slaves
  4. Rescue Russian Girls from Sex Slavery
  5. Stop Her Nightmare
  6. Another Girl Rescued Today
  7. Girls for Sale
  8. Goal Reached!
  9. I Want to be a Prostitute
  10. $52,000 raised!
  11. 31 Million Sex Slaves
  12. Renting Lacy
  13. More Than Rice
  14. Human Trafficking Ring Busted
  15. The Other Big Game
  16. Sex Slavery, Planned Parenthood, and Your Tax Dollars
  17. How to Minister to Prostitutes
  18. Wisconsin Woman Held as Sex Slave in Brooklyn
  19. Coked-Up Whore
  20. Human Trafficking has Many Faces
  21. Into an India Brothel
  22. You Need a Girl?
  23. Human Trafficking Media
  24. The Son of God is Selling Children
  25. My Girls Raised $300 to help stop Human Trafficking
  26. Rape for Profit
  27. Human Trafficking Statistics
  28. Help Rescue Girls from Forced Prostitution

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship

Book Review: The Irresistible Revolution

By Jeremy Myers
2 Comments

Book Review: The Irresistible Revolution

Irresistible RevolutionOther than posting a short blurb on my 4000 books post, I usually do not review books unless they were given to me as review copies. Butย The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne deserves a blog post. I’m not sure yet if it will gain a place on my Burning Books list, but time will tell.

No matter what you believe about the role of Christians in society and culture, especially in regard to social issues like hunger, poverty, and war, Shane’s book will challenge you to think and act differently. It is the story of how he and some friends entered into one of the worst areas of Philadelphia to live out the love of Jesus among the people who were there. Shane gives plenty of examples about the things they have done and the lessons they have learned along the way.

For example, their community developed a statement of beliefs to show people that they were not a cult, but they also developed a statement of practices to show they were not just believers (p. 125). I would love to see this sort of thing adopted in churches everywhere. We have doctrinal statements, but how many of us have practical statements? If what you believe isn’t leading you to do something for others, what good is it? (That sounds a lot like James 2.) ย And of course, their community in Philly didn’t just write a statement of practices, they actually practice them. That’s important too.

Here are some of the other ideas that challenged me:

  • The greatest tragedy in the church today is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor (p. 113, 127, 157).
  • We don’t need more churches. What we need is a church (p. 145).
  • We lose our children to the culture of drugs and materialism, violence and war, not because we did not entertain them, but because we did not challenge them to actually live the gospel in difficult and heroic ways (p. 226).
  • If we believe terrorists are beyond redemption, we should rip out half our New Testament, since it was written by a converted terrorist who became an extremist for grace (p. 272).
  • Violence is for those who have lost their imagination (p. 279).
  • We should no longer talk about “issues” and “needs.” We need to talk about and get to know people. For example, it’s easy to talk about “ending world hunger,” ย but such theoretical discussions cease when we discover that Jim lost his job and doesn’t have any money to put food on the table for his wife and three kids. Stop talking about issues and needs, and get out there and find someone who is dealing with such things, and then help them (p. 292).
  • Bigger is not better. We do not need million-dollar mansions for God to accomplish His will for the world. In fact, those megabuildings might only get in the way (p. 322ff). We need to grow smaller and smaller until we take over the world (p. 340).

Not everyone is going to agree with Shane, his beliefs, or his practices. There were several things he said and did in the book that made me quite uncomfortable. Like the time they went and threw $10,000 worth of coins onto the sidewalks of Wall Street to make a point about greed (pp. 188-189). I’m still not sure what was accomplished, and it seemed a somewhat wasteful way of using $10,000.

I highly recommend this book. And I, for one, am going to do more than just read it. I am going to start trying to live the Kingdom of God ideas it contains. Read this book. Let Shane challenge you to change.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books I'm Reading, Discipleship

Book Review: SoulPrint

By Jeremy Myers
Leave a Comment

Book Review: SoulPrint

I’ve read Mark Batterson‘s other two books,ย In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day, and Wild Goose Chase, and I think both were better than Soulprint. It might just be that I’m a little tired of hearing about how to discover my divine destiny. It seems that ever since Rick Warren published The Purpose Driven Life, every pastor out there is preaching sermons and every Christian author is writing books about discovering who God made you to be and how to live accordingly.

It’s not that I disagree. I believe that each one of us is uniquely created by God to fulfill some purpose within His plan for the world. We are not to copy someone else, but are to learn who God made us to be and how we can live our lives within His Kingdom. Mark Batterson did a good job explaining this concept. And I really appreciated his explanation that there are different seasons in life, and we must be content with the season we are in (p. 25).

The strength ofย Soulprint is that each chapter is based on an event from the life of David. I like it when books do this, because even if I get bored with the book, I still feel like I’m learning something about Scripture. But other than this, I just couldn’t get into the book. It didn’t help that it is another book written by a popular and powerful megachurch pastor. I really struggle with most of these books since it seems that once the authors get to where they are, they forget the struggles and pain that all of us “lesser” people are dealing with. Most of the stories and illustrations in such books deal with how to handle crowds of adoring fans, multi-million dollar budgets, and rich CEOs who try to push your church around. That just doesn’t connect with where most of us are at.

So if you have never read any “find your divine destiny” books, you could start with this one. Otherwise, I recommend you just move on to actually living out who God has made you to be.

Please Rank this review:

FTC Disclaimer: I was given a free review copy of this book by Multnomah Press.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books I'm Reading

Church Planter Disconnect

By Jeremy Myers
Leave a Comment

Church Planter Disconnect

I took a short survey at Church Planter Profiles yesterday. All I really wanted was the chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card, but I found the survey amusing. They did not seem to recognize that house churches are churches too. The survey was about buildings, budget, staff, and how quickly you reached 200 people.

Clearly, what they actually wanted is not “Church Planter Profiles” but “Megachurch Planter Profiles.” Apparently, that is the only way to properly do church.

I even found their homepage picture a little sad:

So apparently, God can only use you to plant a church if you fit this “unique combination of personality, gifting, ability, experience, and drive.” Otherwise, God can’t use you.

Well, I’m not one of them, but I’m still ready. How about it, God?

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship

Free Greek and Hebrew Fonts

By Jeremy Myers
Leave a Comment

Free Greek and Hebrew Fonts

In case you want or need them, here is a link for free Greek and Hebrew fonts.

http://www.bibleworks.com/fonts.html (Download and unpack the zip file on this page, then follow the instructions to install.)

Here are the keyboard layouts:

Free Greek Font
Greek Font Keyboard
Free Hebrew Font
Hebrew Font Keyboard

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Study

Contents of BibleWorks 8

By Jeremy Myers
Leave a Comment

Contents of BibleWorks 8

I am so impressed with all the reference tools in BibleWorks 8. And not just the quantity, but the type of resources. There are Greek and Hebrew tools in BibleWorks you will not find anywhere else. Fantastic original language resources and background material.

Take, for example, the Salkinson-Ginsburg Hebrew New Testament. Yes, it is the New Testament, but in Hebrew. Many people believe that much of the original stories behind the New Testament text (and maybe parts of the text itself — such as the Gospel of Matthew) was originally in Hebrew, not Greek. So while you were hear lots of people talk about the importance of studying the Greek New Testament, there are huge advantages to studying the Hebrew New Testament as well. It was, after all, written primarily by Jews and for Jews. Studying the Salkinson-Ginsburg Hebrew New Testament was one of the things that helped me come to my conclusions on the recent paper I posted on Luke 6:1.

Anyway, I’m not aware of any other Bible Study software package that has this quantity and quality of original language resources. Below is the entire list of study resources in Bible Works 8. It is quite long, so I have included some hotlinks for you to jump to sections that interest you.

Shortcut to Sections:
Original Languages – Hebrew/Aramaic/Syriac
Original Languages – Greek
Bible Versions – English
Bible Versions – Other (they even have Swahili…)
Lexical-Grammatical Reference Works (Look at this list!…)
Other Reference Works (…this list too!)

Original Language Texts

Hebrew/Aramaic/Syriac

  • 1905 British and Foreign Bible Society Peshitto edition
  • The Aramaic New Testament (Peshitta), with the Etheridge (1849), Lewis (1896), Murdock (1851), Norton (1881), and Magiera (2005) English translations
  • Leningrad Codex Hebrew Bible, with full accenting & full vowel pointing
  • Leningrad Codex Hebrew Bible, transliterated
  • Delitzsch Hebrew NT
  • Groves-Wheeler Westminster Hebrew Old Testament Morphology database,version 4.10
  • Hebrew Accent Extensions to Groves-Wheeler Westminster Hebrew Old Testament Morphology database
  • Old Syriac Sinaiticus manuscript
  • Old Syriac Curetonian manuscript
  • Peshitta, with Syriac and Hebrew letters
  • Salkinson-Ginsburg Hebrew New Testament
  • The Targumim, parsed, lemmatized and tied to entries in the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon. Also included:
    • FragTargums with morphology, TgSheniSuppEsther with morphology, TgTosefProphets with morphology
    • Psalms Targum (English)
    • Rodkinson Babylonian Talmud and Mishnah
      (English)
    • Targum Cairo Geniza with morphology
    • Targum Jerusalem on the Pentateuch (English) (Etheridge)
    • Targum Neofiti with morphology
    • Targum NeofMarginalia with morphology
    • Targum Onkelos on the Pentateuch (English) (Etheridge)
    • Targum Pseudo Jonathan on the Pentateuch (Etheridge)
    • Targum PseudoJonathan with morphology
    • Targumim (Mostly Onkelos and Jonathan) with morphologyย (updated 2005)

Greek*

  • Aletti/Gieniusz/Bushell Morphologically Analyzed Greek New Testament
  • Aletti/Gieniusz/Bushell/CATSS Morphologically Analyzed Septuagint
  • Apostolic Fathers English translation
  • Apostolic Fathers (Greek with Morphological tags by Gieniusz/Bushell)
  • Apostolic Fathers Latin
  • Brentonโ€™s Septuagint English Translation,ย including Deutero-canonical section
  • Complete Works of Flavius Josephus, parsed and lemmatized, with the 1828 Whiston English translation and Latin sections
  • Fribergโ€™s 1999 Morphologically Analyzed Greek New Testament
  • Nestle-Aland 27th Edition/UBS Fourth Edition Greek New Testament
  • OT Pseudepigrapha in Greek, morphologically tagged, with English translation
  • Rahlfsโ€™ Septuagint, with Apocrypha & variants
  • Robinson-Pierpont Greek New Testament (Byzantine Textform 2005) with Morphological Analysis
  • Scrivenerโ€™s Greek New Testament (Textus Receptus), with Morphological Analysis
  • Stephanus Greek New Testament (Textus Receptus), with Morphological Analysis
  • Tischendorf Greek New Testament, with Critical Apparatus
  • Von Soden Greek New Testament
  • Westcott and Hort Greek New Testament (proofed & corrected), with Morphological Analysis
  • Works of Philo (Greek Text & Morphology with English translation)

* Modern Greek versions in separate section below

Bible Versions

English

  • American Standard Version, 1901
  • Bible in Basic English, 1949/64
  • Bishop’s Bible, 1595
  • Brentonโ€™s Septuagint English Translation, without Deutero-canonical section
  • Complete Jewish Bible, 1998
  • Darby Bible (1884/1890)
  • Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition
  • English Revised Version, 1881/1885
  • English Standard Version,ย 2007 update
  • Geneva Bible, 1599
  • GODโ€™S WORDยฎ Translation, 1995
  • Holman Christian Standard Bible, 2004
  • Hone English NT Apocrypha
  • Jewish Publication Society Tanakh, 1917
  • Jewish Publication Society Tanakh, 1985
  • King James Apocrypha, 1611
  • King James, 1611, with Strong’s Codes and Geneva Bible notes
  • King James, 1611/1769, with Strong’s Codes
  • MacDonald Idiomatic Translation Bible
  • NET Bible with notes and maps
  • New American Bible
  • New American Standard Bible, 1977, with Codes
  • New American Standard Bible, 1995, with Codes
  • New International Readerโ€™s Version
  • New International Version (UK)
  • New International Version (US), 1984,ย with cross references and footnotes
  • New Jerusalem Bible
  • New King James Version (1982) Version,ย with Strongโ€™s Codes
  • New Living Translation, 2nd edition, 2005
  • New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha, 1989
  • New Testament Peshitta Translation, Etheridge, 1849
  • New Testament Peshitta Translation, James Murdock, 1851
  • New Testament Peshitta Translation, Lewis, 1896
  • New Testament Peshitta Translation, Norton, 1881
  • New Testament Peshitta Translation, Magiera, 2005
  • Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha, 1952
  • Todayโ€™s NIV
  • Tyndale New Testament, 1534
  • Von Soden Greek New Testament
  • Webster Bible, 1833
  • Revised Webster Update, 1995, with Codes
  • Young’s Literal Translation, 1862/1898

Latin

  • Nova Vulgata
  • Latin Vulgate (Weber Edition)
  • Latin Vulgate (Nova Vulgata)
  • Latin Vulgate (Vulgata Clementina 1598 with Glossa Ordinaria notes)
  • Latin sections from Works of Flavius Josephus
  • Online Bible Vulgate Mapped to KJV

Afrikaans

  • Bible Afrikaans, 1953
  • Afrikaans, 1983

Albanian

  • Albanian (1994)

Arabic

  • Van Dyke Arabic Bible

Bulgarian

  • Bulgarian Protestant Version, 1940/1995/2005
  • Bulgarian Bible, 1938
  • Constantinople (Tzarigrad) Bible, 1871

Catalan

  • Catalan BCI Version

Chinese

  • Chinese Union Bible, Big5
  • Chinese Union Bible, Simplified
  • Chinese New Version, Big5
  • Chinese New Version, Simplified

Croatian

  • Croatian Bible

Cyrillic

  • Russian Synodal Text of the Bible with Codes

Czech

  • Bible, 21st Century Translation (B21), 2009ย (added after initial release)
  • Bible Kralicka, 1613
  • Cesky Ekumenicky preklad, 1985
  • Preklad KMS, 1994
  • Nova Bible Kralicka, 1998
  • Slovo na cestu, 2000

Danish

  • De Hellige Skrifter, 1931
  • Wierรธd Danish New Testament,1997

Dutch

  • Leidse Vertaling, 1912/1994
  • Lutherse Vertaling, 1750/1933/1994
  • The Netherlands Bible Society, 1951
  • Statenvertaling, 1637, with Codes
  • Willibrordvertaling Version, 1978
  • Willibrordvertaling Version, 1995

Finnish

  • Raamattu, 1933/1938 kรครคnnรถs

French

  • Bible en franรงais courant, 1997
  • Jerusalem Bible
  • Haitian Creole Bible
  • Louis Segond, 1910, with Strong’s Codes
  • Nouvelle ร‰dition Genรจve, 1979, with Codes
  • Traduction ล’cumรฉnique de la Bible, 1988
  • Version Darby, 1885

German

  • Einheitsรผbersetzung-KBA, 1980
  • Elberfelder, Revised, 1993
  • Elberfelder, Unrevised, 1905 (Darby)
  • Herder Translation (Revised Version 2005)
  • Lutherbibel, 1545
  • LutherBibel, 1912, with Strong’s Codes
  • Mรผnchener New Testament, 1998, with Codes
  • Schlachter Bible, 1951
  • Schlachter Bible, 2000
  • Zuercher Bibel, 2nd edition, 2008

Greek (modern)

  • Greek Orthodox Church NT
  • Metaglottisis Greek New Testament, 2004
  • Modern Greek Bible

Hungarian

  • Kรกroli, 1993

Indonesian

  • Bahasa Indonesia Sehari-hari
  • Terjemahan Baru, 2nd edition, 1974/1997

Italian

  • San Paolo Edizione, 1995
  • La Nuova Diodati, 1991
  • La Sacra Biblia Nuova Riveduta, 1994

Japanese

  • Shinkaiyaku Version
  • Kogoyaku Versionย (added after initial release)

Korean

  • Korean Revised Version

Lithuanian

  • Lithuanian Bible

Macedonian

  • Macedonian Bible

Norwegian

  • 1930 Bokmรฅl
  • 1938 Nynorsk
  • Norsk Bibel Konkordant, 1988
  • Norsk Bibel Nynorsk, 1994

Polish

  • Biblia Gdanska, 1632
  • Biblia Tysiaclecia. Wydanie 4., 1965/84
  • Uwspรณล‚czeล›niona Biblia Gdaล„ska (NT), 2009ย (added after official release)

Portuguese

  • Almeida Revista e Atualizada, 1993
  • Almeida Revista e Corrigida, 1969
  • Almeida Biblia, 1994
  • Corrigida Fiel, 1753/1995
  • Modern Language Translation, 2005

Romanian

  • Cornilescu Bible

Russia

  • Orthodox Russian Synodal Translation
  • Contemporary Russian version, New Testament

Slovak

  • Svรคtรฉ Pรญsmo, 1995

Spanish

  • Castilian La Biblia (Herder)
  • La Biblia de Las Americas, NASB, 1986
  • La Biblia de Nuestro Puebloย (added after official release)
  • La Biblia del Peregrinoย (added after official release)
  • Nueva Biblia de los Hispanos
  • Nueva Versiรณn Internacional
  • Reina-Valera, 1909
  • Reina-Valera Actualizada, 1989
  • Reina-Valera Gรณmez
  • Reina-Valera Revised, 1960
  • Reina-Valera Update, 1995

Swahili

  • New Testament

Swedish

  • Svenska 1917
  • Svenska Folkbibeln, 1998
  • Bibel 82
  • Bibel 2000

Thai

  • Thai King James Version

Turkish

  • Turkish Bible, 2002

Ukrainian

  • Ukrainian

Vietnamese

  • Vietnamese

Lexical-Grammatical References

  • A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament: Based on the Lexical Work of Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner (Holladay)
  • Beginnerโ€™s Grammar of the Greek New Testament (Davis)
  • Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew-English Lexicon, 1905, unabridged
  • Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew-English/Hebrew-French/Hebrew-Russian Lexicons (Strong’s), abridged
  • CATSS/Tov Hebrew-Greek Parallel Aligned Text
  • Fribergโ€™s Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, Complete 2000 edition
  • Geseniusโ€™ Hebrew Grammar
  • A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew, Revised (Joรผon-Muraoka) (no unlock needed)
  • Grammar of Septuagint Greek (Conybeare & Stock)
  • A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, 3rd edition (Robertson)
  • Greek, Hebrew,ย and Aramaicย paradigm chartsย with soundsย (revised)
  • Greek Enchiridion: A Concise Handbook of Grammar and Exegesis (MacDonald)
  • Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Wallace) (no unlock needed)
  • Greek New Testament Diagrams (Leedy),ย complete
  • A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, Volumes 1 & 2 (Lust, Eynikel, Hauspie, Chamberlain)
  • Syntactic and Thematic Greek Transcription of the NT (MacDonald)
  • An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (Waltke & Oโ€™Connor) (no unlock needed)
  • Introductory Lessons in Aramaic (Eric D. Reymond)
  • Liddell-Scott Greek Lexicon, abridged
  • Louw-Nida Greek New Testament Lexicon based on Semantic Domains, Second Edition
  • Moods and Tenses of New Testament Greek (Burton)
  • The Shorter Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, Revised Edition (Gingrich/Danker)
  • The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Harris, Archer & Waltke)
  • Thayer Greek Lexicon, abridged
  • Thayer Greek Lexicon, unabridged
  • The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament Module (J.H. Moulton and G. Milligan) (no unlock needed)ย (added after initial release)
  • Wigramโ€™s Tense, Voice, Mood codes for some English, German, Dutch, French and Russian Bibles

Reference Works

  • 1689 London Baptist Confessionย (added after initial release)
  • Belgic Confessionย (added after initial release)
  • Biographical Bible (distinguishes Bible people with same names)
  • Canons of Dortย (added after initial release)
  • Charles, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha English translation
  • Early Church Fathers
  • Easton’s Bible Dictionary
  • Fausset Bible Dictionary
  • Greek NT Vocabulary Sound Files (Schwandt)
  • Hebrew Vocabulary Sound Files (Verbruggen)
  • Heidelberg Catechismย (added after initial release)
  • International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
  • James, New Testament Apocrypha English translation
  • Matthew Henry’s Commentary
  • Metzger’s Bible Outline
  • Nave’s Topical Index
  • New Chain Reference Bible (1934) topics (Thompson)
  • New Topical Text Book (Torrey)
  • Old Testament Quotations in the New Testament (Archer & Chirichigno)
  • Synopsis of the Gospels
  • Timelines: Biblical, Church, and Secular History
  • TEXTKRITIK des Neuen Testaments (Gregory)
  • Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge
  • Westminster Confessional Standards (CHM version)ย (added after initial release)
FTC Disclaimer: I was asked to review BibleWorks 8 in exchange for a review copy.

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Study

Money, Missions, and Megachurches

By Jeremy Myers
2 Comments

Money, Missions, and Megachurches

I was reading a book recently by a pastor of a megachurch in California. He said that their church committed from very early on to give 50% of their annual budget to missions.

That is quite commendable. I’m glad they took such a stand, though it would be interesting to see how they define “missions.” (For example, is Youth Group missions? Is the annual Missions Conference missions? How about when the pastor takes a a two week fishin’ trip…I mean mission trip…to Alaska? But we’ll leave all those questions aside.)

The funny thing is that I hear this sort of thing from several megachurches. It seems they have a desire to justify their big buildings, stained glass windows, and fancy choir robes by saying they give 50% of their budget away.

But that’s like multi-millionaires saying they give away 50% of their income in order to justify spending the other 50% on a house with 50 bathrooms, 7 Lamborghinis, a personal airstrip and golf course, and weekly jaunts to Greece and Italy. The generosity is commendable, no doubt about it. But they’re still spending millions of dollars on themselves every year.

And then yesterday, it hit me. Most house churches I know give away nearly 100% of their church “budget.” They don’t have paid staff, mortgages, electric bills, or any of the other things that traditional churches have.

But since these churches are so small, they don’t equal the “missional” force of a megachurch giving away 50% of it’s income, right?

Wrong.

According to some studies, there are at least 1.4 million people involved in house churches in the United States. Some place it as high as 50 million, but we’ll keep with the much lower figure of 1.4. It looks like the average attendance in mega-churches might be around 3000 people, and very few of those are giving away 50% of their budget. So the 1.4 million people involved in house churches equals about 467 megachurches, and almost 100% of the money that these 1.4 million people give to their home groups goes straight to some sort of missions activity. To equal the same amount of giving power, you would need over 900 megachurches giving 50% or more of their annual budget. When you realize that there are only about 1400 megachurches in the US, it seems unlikely that two-thirds of them are giving away 50% of their budget.

It seems then, that there might be more mission and tithing power in house churches than megachurches.

What do you think about all this? And does anyone have any better statistics?

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, Theology of the Church

You're Invited: February Synchroblog

By Jeremy Myers
6 Comments

You're Invited: February Synchroblog

I’ll be participating in February’s Synchroblog. The theme is Creativity and Christianity. Here are the instructions from Kathy:

The February synchroblog theme is โ€œCreativity and Christianityโ€ โ€“ Wednesday February 9th, 2011

Itโ€™s wide open but here are some questions to get the creative juices flowing: Is there a connection between art/creativity and Christianity? Is creativity spiritual in nature? Is there such a thing as โ€œChristian Artโ€? Does creativity have anything to do with spiritual formation? What is needed for art to qualify as Christian? Is our theology shaped or influenced by creativity/art? Is creativity/art vital to our faith? How does creativity/art impact Christian thought and/or Christian praxis? Is there a particular form of art that has impacted your spiritual journey? Should there be a distinction between sacred and secular art? Is Christianity experiencing a โ€œcreative crisisโ€? Is creativity and our knowledge of God connected?

Please plan to submit your name, name of blog, title of post and link in the comment section of this post on 2/8/2011 if you would like to be included in this synchroblog. The list of participants will be compiled and posted on 2/9/2011.

I already have several ideas on what I might write about.

If you are going to participate, I’ll see you there! (Also, do you know of any other blogs that do this?)

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Blogging

Let My People Go!

By Jeremy Myers
1 Comment

Let My People Go!

I am a big believer in giving people freedom from church buildings and front-led church meetings. So it was encouraging today to read what Paul Leader at his Perspectives blog wrote today:

If there was one message I had for pastors and leaders of congregations, churches and gatherings it would be this. It is time to let my people go!!! People need to have freedom to express and discover their own paths in life, their own gifts and abilities.

As leaders it is time to let go of insecurities and let our people go. Send them. Let them follow dreams even if they get it wrong. Be there for them. Love them. Equip them for living and not for maintenance. Be like the eagle that realises that the young have to learn how to fly or die. Take away the dow and feathers. Take away the twigs and the nest. It is time to soar. Too many eagles have become domesticated chickens, cooped up for life laying eggs just for eating and not for growth. It is time for freedom.

Preach it, Paul! Lead away!

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Close Your Church for Good, Theology of the Church

The Heresy in Debates about James 2

By Jeremy Myers
7 Comments

The Heresy in Debates about James 2

Faith and WorksEverywhere I turn, Christians and churches are debating James 2:14-26, and especially the role of faith and works.

Enough already!

The primary problem with such debates is that they cause us to ignore the rest of the book of James, which the church so desperately needs to hear. As we debate James 2, we continue to show favoritism in church (James 2:1-9), gossip and slander one another (James 3), judge, condemn, and fight with each other (James 4), and misuse, abuse, and neglect the poor (James 5).

I say we should stop all debates about James 2:14-26 until we have obeyed the rest of the book. (Frankly, if we did that, I think it would clear up James 2…)

I was thinking about this earlier today, so it was with great appreciation that I read the following comment on the blog of Alan Knox, who was quoting Arthur Sido at his blog, The Voice of One Crying Out in Suburbia:

I asked Beoda and another young boy, Stevenson, to write their names in the small Bible I brought with me on the page facing the first chapter of James to remind me that James is not speaking of theological concepts to be debated in the ivy covered halls of academia. He was speaking of real people, real orphans who had their lives turned upside down. Real widows who lost their husband and often had children to care for in a very different, very difficult world. James was writing about Beoda and Selene, about Stevenson, about Kimberly.

The great tragedy–can I call it heresy?–of James 2 is not necessarily where we stand on the issue of faith vs. works, but how we allow this debate to sidetrack us from the message of James that we so desperately need to hear and obey today.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Study, Discipleship

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 195
  • 196
  • 197
  • 198
  • 199
  • …
  • 243
  • Next Page »
Join the discipleship group
Learn about the gospel and how to share it

Take my new course:

The Gospel According to Scripture
Best Books Every Christian Should Read
Study Scripture with me
Subscribe to my Podcast on iTunes
Subscribe to my Podcast on Amazon

Do you like my blog?
Try one of my books:

Click the image below to see what books are available.

Books by Jeremy Myers

Theological Study Archives

  • Theology – General
  • Theology Introduction
  • Theology of the Bible
  • Theology of God
  • Theology of Man
  • Theology of Sin
  • Theology of Jesus
  • Theology of Salvation
  • Theology of the Holy Spirit
  • Theology of the Church
  • Theology of Angels
  • Theology of the End Times
  • Theology Q&A

Bible Study Archives

  • Bible Studies on Genesis
  • Bible Studies on Esther
  • Bible Studies on Psalms
  • Bible Studies on Jonah
  • Bible Studies on Matthew
  • Bible Studies on Luke
  • Bible Studies on Romans
  • Bible Studies on Ephesians
  • Miscellaneous Bible Studies

Advertise or Donate

  • Advertise on RedeemingGod.com
  • Donate to Jeremy Myers

Search (and you Shall Find)

Get Books by Jeremy Myers

Books by Jeremy Myers

Schedule Jeremy for an interview

Click here to Contact Me!

© 2025 Redeeming God · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Knownhost and the Genesis Framework